Increasing Exposure to MLPs

Over the past two months, the global economy has performed better than we anticipated in the second quarter. Despite a meaningful tightening in financial conditions, increasing trade tensions, and rising sovereign credit risk in Italy, we have not seen renewed deterioration in global economic data. On the contrary, our leading economic indicators have stabilized over the past month, suggesting that the global slowdown experienced in the first half of the year may be coming to an end.

Somewhat surprisingly, this stabilization seems most apparent in emerging markets, where we would have expected to see more negative developments given the underperformance of currency, equity, and credit markets. Furthermore, bank lending surveys from the United States and Europe show supportive demand and supply conditions, with ongoing easing in lending standards in both regions. However, market sentiment remains quite fragile for the moment, suggesting that global equities are likely to remain vulnerable to aforementioned risks.

As a result, we maintain our modest underweight to global equities. Similarly, after having hedged our EM currency exposure for the past few months we decided to close our EM local fixed income position, as we expect some additional underperformance in the medium term due to U.S. dollar strength, and rising inflation due to currency weakness. In credit markets, we maintain a large underweight to U.S. credit, in favor of event-linked bonds. We are moderately overweight duration in developed markets as we are seeing some signs of inflation stabilization. Furthermore, we added exposure to MLPs in early June and late July, funded out of large-cap U.S. equities.

Adding Exposure to MLPs

Over the past four years, while the S&P 500 Index has posted cumulative total returns of about 60%, MLPs have lost about 20%, for a whopping gap of 80% versus core U.S. equities.1 We believe this trend may be coming to an end, with MLPs now offering attractive valuations and improved fundamentals as a result of a long and painful healing process. To be sure, this healing process may not be over yet, but it is certainly very advanced. Overall, we believe this asset class could benefit from several tailwinds, in terms of long-term fundamentals as well as cyclical and near-term positive catalysts.

From a long-term fundamental perspective:

Cheap valuations versus S&P 500: Infrastructure MLPs currently trade at an EV/EBITDA discount of about 7% and 11% versus their 10-year and 5-year averages, respectively. In contrast, the S&P 500 trades at a premium of 21% and 15% versus its 10-year and 5-year average (Exhibit 1).

Restructuring: While still ongoing, restructuring has gradually taken place in the past couple of years, with elimination of incentive distribution rights, which reduce the proportion of cash flow allocated to limited partners at high absolute dividend levels, capital structure simplification, increasing adoption of self-funding models, and a focus on return on invested capital.

Rising U.S. production: U.S. crude oil and natural gas production continues to grow and it is expected to set new records, supported also by rising export growth. Volume increases should drive positive operating leverage for midstream companies (Exhibit 2).

Infrastructure constraints: This will require ongoing infrastructure spending over the next few years.

Recent positive developments:

FERC final ruling: In mid-July, the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a final ruling on the MLP treatment of the income tax allowance, providing more flexibility compared to the initial version. This should result in a less pronounced reduction in rates for cost of service pipelines than originally estimated based on the March ruling (see a recent blog from the SteelPath Team for more).

Conclusion

We believe the current macro regime of slowing growth has been historically consistent with bonds, credit, and equities delivering similar returns, therefore arguing for limited dynamic tilts between traditional asset classes. However, our Global Allocation strategy continues to express large deviations from a traditional 60/40 allocation, with sizable relative value exposures within asset classes, representing about 30% of our portfolio. This includes positions in small caps, mid caps, and MLPs versus large-cap U.S. equities, and event-linked bonds versus developed markets credit.

^Relative performance between the Alerian MLP Infrastructure Index and the SP 500 index from August 2014 to August 2018.

OppenheimerFunds is not undertaking to provide impartial investment advice or to provide advice in a fiduciary capacity.

Mutual funds and exchange traded funds are subject to market risk and volatility. Shares may gain or lose value.

Fixed income investing entails credit and interest rate risks. When interest rates rise, bond prices generally fall. Emerging and developing market investments may especially be volatile. Investing in MLPs involves additional risks as compared to the risks of investing in common stock, including risks related to cash flow, dilution and voting rights. Each Fund’s investments are concentrated in the energy infrastructure industry with an emphasis on securities issued by MLPs, which may increase volatility. Energy infrastructure companies are subject to risks specific to the industry such as fluctuations in commodity prices, reduced volumes of natural gas or other energy commodities, environmental hazards, changes in the macroeconomic or the regulatory environment or extreme weather. MLPs may trade less frequently than larger companies due to their smaller capitalizations which may result in erratic price movement or difficulty in buying or selling. Additional management fees and other expenses are associated with investing in MLP funds. Additionally, investing in MLPs involves material income tax risks and certain other risks. Actual results, performance or events may be affected by, without limitation (1) general economic conditions, (2) performance of financial markets, (3) interest rate levels, (4) changes in laws and regulations, and (5) changes in the policies of governments and/or regulatory authorities. Investing in MLPs may generate unrelated business taxable income (UBTI) for tax-exempt investors both during the holding period and at time of sale. Diversification does not guarantee profit or protect against loss.

These views represent the opinions of OppenheimerFunds, Inc. and are not intended as investment advice or to predict or depict the performance of any investment. These views are as of the publication date, and are subject to change based on subsequent developments.

This material is provided for general and educational purposes only, is not intended to provide legal or tax advice, and is not for use to avoid penalties that may be imposed under U.S. federal tax laws. OppenheimerFunds is not undertaking to provide impartial investment advice or to provide advice in a fiduciary capacity. Contact your attorney or other advisor regarding your specific legal, investment or tax situation.

OFI Global Asset Management (“OFI Global”) consists of OppenheimerFunds, Inc. and certain of its advisory subsidiaries, including OFI Global Asset Management, Inc., OFI Global Institutional Inc., OFI SteelPath Inc., OFI Global Trust Company, SNW Asset Management, LLC and OFI Advisors, LLC. The firm offers a full range of investment solutions across equity, fixed income and alternative asset classes. The views herein represent the opinions of OFI Global and are subject to change based on subsequent developments. They are not intended as investment advice or to predict or depict the performance of any investment. The material contained herein is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, investment, accounting, legal or tax advice. Further, this material does not constitute a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. No offer or solicitation for the sale of any security or financial instrument is made hereby.

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